The Obama administration is being sued again, this time for allegedly engaging in "abusive and illegal practices" that coerce citizens of Mexico into abandoning defenses that could prevent their deportation.

The immigration enforcement agencies operating in Southern California regularly pressure, deceive, and threaten Mexican nationals who are eligible to reside in the United States lawfully—and have built lives in the United States over decades—into signing their own expulsion orders through misuse of a process known as “voluntary departure.” These abusive and illegal practices rob victims of their right to seek relief from removal. As administered and practiced in Southern California, the “voluntary departure” program has become a regime of unlawful coerced expulsion—one which tears numerous families apart every year.

Immigration officers’ misstatements and omissions are exacerbated by the fact that they regularly pressure individuals to agree to voluntary departure before they have had any opportunity to speak to an attorney. Immigration enforcement agencies in Southern California expel individuals who have taken voluntary departure as rapidly as logistically possible in many instances, on the same day. This practice violates the agencies’ governing regulations, which require that immigration officers exercise discretion to determine whether to allow an individual who has taken voluntary departure a period of up to 120 days to leave the United States. Thus, individuals who have been in the United States for decades are unlawfully ripped from their families and established lives for up to ten years without having time to consider their other legal options, put their affairs in order, or even say goodbye to family members